Broken Dreams
by night.nerd
Summary: It has been nearly a year since Thor left, and Jane has been actively throwing herself into her work to find a way to form a Rosen-Einstein bridge to Asgard so she can once again see him. She tortures herself with frequent appearances of him in her dreams whenever she sleeps. After a car wreck, Jane must decide if the Thor visiting her is real or simply just another broken dream.


**Author's Note: **Well, I recently joined the Avengers fandom and immediately fell in love with this ship (Thane?) - Thor/Jane. I came up with this idea a couple days ago and was dying to write it. Now I have to be up in under six hours, and yet I stayed up to write this. If there are any mistakes (due to lack of sleep), please let me know so I can fix them up! Enjoy!

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It is approaching a year since I last seen Thor as he had risen to what he called the Bifrost. The skies had then cleared and revealed nothing relatively close to the Rosen-Einstein Bridge Thor had described, not even a trace of a rainbow. After that, I waited. A month later, I began to completely immerse myself in astrophysics, and though initially it was simply a distraction from the pain of the distance to Thor, it quickly became a search for a way to see him.

"This isn't healthy Jane," Erik reminds me as he walks into the kitchen in where we reside, along with our rooms full of research, at six in the morning, a coffee cup omitting a stream of steam in his steady hand. His eyes glance around the papers scattered on either side of me, and, with an accusatory expression with his thick brows pulled over his cloudy eyes, he asks, "Have you been up all night?"

"Night technically ends at midnight, but yes," I say, stifling a yawn. "I feel like I'm so close to having the solution to repairing the Bifrost, or at least grasping a better understanding of it. I just need a couple more hours…"

"Of sleep maybe," Darcy groans, pounding angrily down the stairs. "You really can't run some of your machines so early Jane. Does this look like somebody who likes to be woken up at six am?" She gestures to her face, still smeared with sleep. Darcy runs the same hand through her disheveled hair while her other hand holds her phone while supporting the comforter wrapped tightly around her shoulders. The slight hum of the machines processing new images and making sense of the complex data is whirring behind her words.

"I'm sorry," I apologize, putting the machines on standby until further notice. "It's just… I miss him. That's all." I give a half-hearted shrug, unsure if I can say more without choking up.

"We know, we really do Jane, but you still must maintain your health. Thor won't be too pleased to find you in bad condition when he returns," Erik tries to convince me.

"If he returns," Darcy mutters under her breath. I avert my gaze from her eyes, which Erik's meet with a scolding glare. "Did I say if? I meant when," she remarks, trying to recover from her mistake.

I sigh, which induces a series of exhausted yawns. "You're right," I admit quietly. "It isn't healthy. I'll just go to bed." My stride is resigned, defeated, because I know that it is not healthy, and I should really be moving on from Thor, yet I constantly pursue for him. There's something in the depths of his blue eyes and his old-fashioned chivalry that drives my search, something I can't quite place. The only thing that I know is I miss it, almost as much as I miss Thor himself. My leaden feet graze over the stairs and, in my sleep deprived state, I misjudge the distance and fall onto the steps.

"Are you alright?" Erik asks, concern laced through his voice.

"I'm fine," I assure him. "Just tired." However, the depth of my statement is more than my words. Though I am physically tired, my mental state can no longer handle the internal push for more information, more research, more hope. I am tired of this seemingly meaningless quest for the hopeful reunification with Thor, a reward that is too distant to see. I sigh as I reach the top of the steps, shuffling to my bedroom.

S.H.I.E.L.D. provided the house I share with Erik and Darcy after returning my life's work of research. Though it does not completely compensate for what they did, it is a start. The layout of my room, which is in the center of second floor, is a rather simple one, with three walls made of plaster and another made of glass overlooking the small town of Puente Antiguo, New Mexico. My bed is pressed against the window and, too exhausted to change into sleepwear, I simply collapse into it, landing on a variety of papers that correspond with my research and Norse mythology. My eyelids flutter closed, and I embrace the relaxing sleep.

_Jane. _The voice resounds through the haze of my dreams, a thick accent of a world that is not this one but instead Asgard, the world of the Norse gods. _I am coming. _The scene ripples before me, the same setting with the desert spanning outwards from me. The sky is clear and blue, exactly as it was when Thor left. It is the same place, but the time I am unsure of. _Why do you taunt me like this? _I demand to the open skies, my rage and frustration being vented to empty air. _I have been looking for you for three days short of a year and you still aren't here! _My words tremble and then fall, sinking far into the bland sand. I drop to my knees, the painful reality that I don't like to be reminded of embracing me from every side, squeezing the hope from me. _You promised you would return,_ I murmur quietly to myself, allowing all my emotions to flow out in my dream so once I return to actuality I can focus on my research. A raindrop falls from the corner of my eye and lands on the back of my hand, precisely where Thor kissed so long ago. _You promised. _The scene shatters as an irksome beeping noise pulses repeatedly, slowly attracting my consciousness.

I curse under my breath as the thought reminding me that I have to be at an astrophysicist convention to present my works on the Rosen-Einstein bridge strikes me. The clock broadly announces I have an hour to be there, meaning only half that to get ready. "Clean jeans," I mutter under my breath as I slip them on. "Button up shirt." I pull on a simple plaid button up shirt, with the colors red and silver braided into it, over a navy tank top. I exit my room, quickly tread down the stairs, and then nod goodbye to Darcy, who is sitting at the kitchen table with her earbuds in and her iPod playing an upbeat song with humorous lyrics at full volume. She gives me a half-wave in return, her head bobbing to the beat and her dark curls rocking, her glasses slowly sliding down her nose in the process.

I grab my keys and unlock my large van, equipped with more research technology than before. Hastily, I glance behind me before reversing out of the two car garage and down the steep driveway. My foot releases off of the break petal as the car automatically slides down the last couple of feet, and my hands adjust the steering wheel to the right position.

The momentum sends me sprawling into my seatbelt as I hit a large object, my tired reflexes unable to prevent my head from slamming violently against the steering wheel. The car veers out of my control as the world fades to black.

_Jane. _The dream voice taunts me once again, sending me hopes and promises of the return of someone who is never coming back. _Please stop, _I beg, unable to take the exhaustion that comes along with this dream. _Jane, _it repeats, louder and more commanding. "Jane, please wake up." A gentle shake accompanies the voice this time, softer with more compassion. "Please," the voice murmurs, longing and hope intermingled in the single word.

Groggily, I open my eyes mechanically to a dream vision of Thor standing underneath a bright light. The material of the plastic hospital gown feels odd against my skin, but not nearly as odd as the image my cruel imagination has put in front of me. Thor is standing next to me, bent over so that his face is a couple centimeters away from mine. His electric blue eyes spark and his golden hair tumbles over his shoulders as he reaches out and traces circles on one of my limp hands with one of his. Blue and silver armor glints from underneath his red cloak, and metallic diamonds mold to his muscular arms. "I am pleased you are awake. It has been quite a while longer than I expected," he admits, a small smile dancing on his lips that are still familiar after so long a time.

"Please," I mutter brokenly. "Please just go away." The shock is evident in his features as the pain his masked in the eyes that I see everywhere I look. "I can't do this anymore. I dedicate all of my time and research to finding the Rosen-Einstein bridge, the rainbow bridge you told me about so long ago, and yet all I receive in return is these torturous hallucinations."

His expression reveals his anguish for a moment before hardening into something entirely emotionless, though his words and their delicate quality tell me everything I need to know about how this dream Thor is feeling. "How… how much time has faded away since we last parted? The passing of time on Asgard is very different from the passing of time of Midgard and I am not completely aware of the difference between the two." In his voice, there is confusion meddled with an attempt at understanding my words, putting meaning behind what makes no sense.

"You already know," I respond, my voice fading as exhaustion threatens to engulf me, "because you are simply a figment of my cruel imagination. Please." My voice cracks, unable to bear the stress of the situation.

"Jane," he says taking both my hands in his and kneeling next to the low hospital bed so our eyes are level. "I have returned from Asgard as promised. Against my will, I was forced to destroy the Bifrost I informed you of prior to my parting because it was the only way to stop my brother, Loki, from committing genocide of an entire species. I have recently mustered enough magic to send me here, but I am unsure of when I will collect enough magic to return or when Heimdall will repair the Bifrost. The damage is extensive, so I am not sure when I can return home. Jane, I have returned for you, as promised."

"I want to believe you, I really do, but if I let myself believe what you are saying, then when I wake up, it will hurt so much more." I cautiously slip my hands from his grasp, looking into his eyes skeptically. The pain was building inside of my chest, for I knew this dream had already become too realistic not to affect me.

He offers an open palm to me, as if asking permission to take my hand. Taking a wild leap of faith similar to the ones I sometimes take in my scientific procedures, I rest one hand in his, which he immediately brushes to his lips. "I made you a deal, Jane Foster, and now I will give you evidence that I kept my part of the deal. Could a dream do this?" He kisses my hand once again and looks up at me hopefully.

"Yes," I state wearily, tired of my imagination's games.

"And this?" Slowly, as if giving me time to reject his advances, he moves closer until we are a mere couple of centimeters apart. He hesitates slightly before pressing his lips to mine, and, in that moment, I decide to allow this dream to destroy me because the realism of it is simply too much to ignore. He pulls back shortly, waiting for a response. I nod reluctantly, and his confident demeanor begins to disappear.

"Can you hit dreams with your mechanical transportation device?" He asks, a final attempt to convince me that what is happening is not a dream and instead reality.

"You mean my van?" My mind is too busy translating his question that it takes a couple of moments to realize what he just said. "It was you I hit?"

"Yes, and it wasn't the first time either," a shadow of his past grin illuminates his face for a fraction of a second, giving me time to formulate a response. "Though I am apologetic for being the cause of your accident. I wish there would have been a way to prevent it, but I was entirely unaware of your metal machine."

I feel his hands wrapped around mine, the heat radiating from his muscular body, and the remainder of his kiss on my lips. "You can't hit dreams," I muse to myself. "Meaning, by using the scientific process, you must be real."

"I am, Jane. I have returned for you, and I have no intention to leave for a very long amount of time." It was then I learned that it wasn't just Thor that I had been missing, but his generous and compassionate character. I had missed his steadfast determination, his formal dialect, his exotic knowledge, but most of all, I missed his love.

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**Author's Note: **And that's that! I hope you enjoyed my little fic :) Because I have major issues with continuation fics (which some of you have experienced with my delayed Mollylock fic - I promise I'll try to work on it soon!), I have decided to make this a oneshot. I apologize if the characters are a little out of character - it is my first Avengers-related fic and I found Thor and Jane were heavily influenced by their comic versions (yes, I have read the Thor: The Mighty Avenger comics).

Please leave a review! What takes me multiple hours and over 2,000 words to write only takes you a mere couple seconds to review!

Until next time!

~NN


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